Eisenkot Tops Netanyahu in Suitability as Blocs Face Deadlock

Israeli opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot leads Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by nine percentage points regarding suitability for office. This finding comes from a new survey conducted Tuesday. The data highlights a complex political landscape ahead of the general elections scheduled for October 27 in the country.

The survey questioned 886 respondents with a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points. It was executed in cooperation with Index, Stat-Net, Sample and Askaria. Results show forty-five percent of participants chose Eisenkot as better suited to serve. Thirty-six percent selected Netanyahu, while nineteen percent remained undecided on the matter.

Despite Eisenkot’s personal advantage, Netanyahu’s political bloc holds a narrow lead in projected Knesset seats. The governing coalition is expected to win fifty-four seats in the one hundred twenty-member parliament. Jewish opposition parties are projected to secure fifty-two seats combined. Arab parties would win fourteen seats together in the vote.

Neither major bloc reaches the sixty-one seats required to form a government independently. This deadlock persists despite a recent shift favoring Netanyahu’s camp. Previous polls had shown the two main blocs tied. Opposition leaders have historically rejected relying on Arab parties to reach the necessary majority threshold for governance formation.

At the party level, Eisenkot’s Yashar emerges as the largest single party with twenty-two seats. Netanyahu’s Likud falls to eighteen seats, marking its lowest result in current campaign polling. Naftali Bennett’s Together party follows with twelve seats. Yair Golan’s Democrats and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu take ten and eight respectively.

Netanyahu faces ongoing corruption trials and an International Criminal Court arrest warrant. The warrant cites war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict. He has led the government since late 2022, a period marked by deep internal divisions. Thirty-eight lists registered for the election, though only thirteen are projected to win.